I was 30 years old, I had been divorced for 2 years. That morning , the alarm went off and I had to get up, get the kids ready to go to their sitter and me to work. I realized my left side was completely numb, no problem, this had happened a few times in the previous weeks so I just stayed in bed a few minutes more until it went away. Before getting the kids up, I jumped in the shower. I went numb again but this time I was rattled, it had never happened to me twice in as little time before. I waited a few minutes, again, it went away. I was worried. I got the kids up and prepared them and myself to leave the house. I brought the kids to the sitter's and drove myself to the hospital where after questions and testing, they decided to keep me. I called the kids' father to pick them up after work as I was being hospitalized. I think I called my mother next. Little did I know, I was going to be there for the next 3 months. After 1 1/2 weeks of testing they found an aneurysm and told me I needed to be operated on ASAP because I was a walking time bomb.They operated the next day to repair the brain aneurysm and during the operation I bled and it caused a stroke which left me paralyzed on the left side. The surgery lasted 8 hours and it took me almost a week to wake up and realize I had lost the use of my entire left side . A week after that I was transferred to a rehab hospital. This was March/84 and I went home at the end of June/84. During the following months I was put on bed rest, no physio, 2 or 3 times because of blood clots in my leg. That was a week at a time so I missed much needed physio and occupational therapies. At the end of June, I was sent home. I was still in a wheelchair and could walk around the house with my brace and quad cane. I continued physio as out patient for about one year. In the mean time I had returned to work. Part of my job was handling large maps which I could not do with only one hand functioning. I asked to have my old job back at the reception. That worked good for a few months until they abolished the position. Working for the federal government, I was put on a priority list for same positions that came up in the whole of the Public Service. I kept the receptionist position until I found work somewhere else. It took about 1 year to transfer to a new department. The job was in Finance. I was scared to death when I went for the interview because I had a hard time balancing my checkbook. I had an angel on my shoulder that day because I got the job. This position included working on the computer which I knew nothing about, they were just beginning to phase in at that time. ( early 90's) It turned out I did fine. I guess I was still young enough to learn new things. Believe me, having a stroke is all about learning new things. Most of what I learned, I learned by myself by trying, trying and trying. If it worked I had learned something, if it didn't I tried some more because most of the time I was alone and couldn't depend on anyone but myself to do things. Ok, I'm getting off the pity pot. I learned, a lot, not sure how to share this with my readers

opening a jar with one hand: If you don't have a gadget to do this like I now have, you run the jar lid under hot water then with the handle of a table knife you bang the side of the lid in the direction that will untwist it. Then you put the jar between your legs (bare legs work better) you twist off the lid and VOILA!!! It is not something I like to do in front of company but alone it works. If you need to scrape out whats left at the bottom of a jar the trick about puting the jar between your legs while you scrape, works too.

I have a cutting board with a ledge so I can butter a slice of bread or toast without it getting away from me. I can almost see you smile, you know what I am talking about. This board also has 3 nails almost forming a small triangle, the nails are stainless steel, so not toxic and they act as your second hand to hold down meat or vegetables while cutting, slicing or paring . I also have a rocking knife to use at the table. Asking someone to cut your meat works too. :Clap-Hands:

In the bathroom, I have a non-slip bath mat and grab bars. I learned to take showers instead of baths because for 20 years I was overweight and could not get out of the tub. This I learned the hard way and it was not pretty , me getting out without sleeping for 3 days straight because I was exausted. Now I do have the occasional soak in the bathtub and I can get out without straining too much.

Pill bottles: I ask my pharmacist to give me snap caps intead of the dummy proof bottles they have now.

:yadayada: